Approved: 4,000-Home 'New Urban' Town With a Country Feel and No Lawns

3,145-Acre Development off Highway 17, South of Green Cove

Agricola will sit on 3,145 acres with space for 4,000 homes and which will include commercial spaces and places of worship such as shown here—hotels, too.

By SHELBIE GRAHAM

Clay County’s rural character is constantly being clear-cut to make way for suburban sprawl, but there is one sprouting, green-thumbed development standing out from other upcoming projects.

Located south of Green Cove Springs off U.S. Highway 17, the Agricola Property seeks to reinvent typical American suburbia, or at least put a small-town rural twist to it, by minimizing car-centrism and emphasizing Clay’s natural environment.

This was the pitch the Agricola family made to the Clay County Board of County Commissioners as they requested to convert 3,145 agricultural-zoned acres to a “planned unit development,” the foundation for what will be 4,000 residential units.

To put that in perspective, Eagle Harbor in Fleming Island is a 3,000-acre planned community with 29,505 residents living in 11,736 available housing units.

The neighborhood will also include open space and woodlands, as these renderings show.

When we think of housing developments in Clay, such as Eagle Harbor for example, we think of rows of cookie-cutter stucco homes lined taut and neatly with two cars in the driveway and perhaps one parked on the street. Driving to work. Driving to school. Driving to the store. Mowing the grass on the weekends.

“No lawns” is one of the many defining features of Agricola (the Latin word for “farmer”), which would instead be replaced with native plants, community gardening and farming.

Additionally, Agricola has plans in place to preserve its natural wetlands, pave pedestrian paths and save about half of the property simply for green space. “Village centers” of mixed-use residential and commercial buildings will be dotted in between fields and pine forests.

Human Scaled

There will be roads for cars, certainly, but Agricola has taken a keen interest in planning a “human-scaled” community, one interwoven with mixed-use buildings within short walking distances. This starkly contrasts with most communities in Clay, which have residential and commercial areas segregated separately and interconnected nearly only by car.

Agricola appears to be inspired by New Urbanism, a movement advocating for top-down planning to design condensed, environmentally conscious communities.

Walkability is the central and radical tenet of New Urbanism. Instead of hopping in your car to drive to the other side of town where the stores are, why not just build everything closer? Using your legs means less emissions, less traffic, better health and a better sense of community.

The Seaside and Rosemarry Beach located along the coast of Florida’s panhandle are examples of communities embracing New Urbanism. Notably, Seaside also prohibits private front yards.

The Agricola Property is located west of US 17, south of Green Cove Springs and north of Leno Road.

On April 23, the BCC voted 4-1 with Commissioner Mike Cella dissenting to approve the rezoning request for the 3,145-acre property. The 30-year development is planned to provide $236 million in property tax revenue for the county based on Agricola’s estimates.

In Clay, many mixed-use developments have tried and failed. The death of the mixed-use developments arises when all the “commercial” units are converted to “residential,” a tempting shortcut in the midst of Florida’s lucrative (dare I say, bubbling?) housing market.

The BCC’s 4-1 decision on April 23 was contingent on a legally binding development agreement. If Agricola wanted to convert commercial to residential, it would have to stand before the dais once again for the BCC’s approval – and even then, Agricola is only allowed to convert 500 units at most.

Christophe Agricola (left) speaks to the Clay County Board of County Commissioners on April 23 before the rezoning application was approved

Agricola is permitted to build 100 hotel rooms, one million square feet of office space, 640,000 square feet for education and 340,000 square feet for commercial use in addition to 4,000 residential units.

The challenge for Clay’s newest neighborhood will be attracting residents who are onboard with both urbanism and ruralism—those who enjoy living above a trendy brunch restaurant and like wearing a cowboy hat when pulling up weeds.